In the Dark I See
by Hope the Ghost Writer
Summary: GLaDOS said she laid waste to all of her cryogenically-stored testing subjects, but, in reality, there was one final subject that she preserved for last...
1. Square One

My breathing is heavy, and my pupils have shrunken dramatically. My heart is pulsing. My head is aching. What happened? Where am I? Scratch that. _Who_ am I?

"Welcome to the Aperture Science Computer Assisted Enrichment Center."

_Who said that? _The voice produced a forced male voice that cheerfully tried to make light of the situation.

"We hope your brief detention in the relaxation vault has been a pleasant one."

_Detention? Relaxation vault? What is that guy talking about?_

I look around at the room I'm in. It's small, has glass walls and white-tiled floors, and does not have a single exit. There's a cot in one corner, a toilet in another, and a radio by my bedside. Underneath the radio is a clipboard with notes scrawled on the paper attached to it, but the handwriting's so illegible that I can't read a thing that's on it.

"Your specimen has been processed and we are now ready to begin the test proper."

_Excuse me? You did _what _now?_

"Before we start, however, keep in mind that although fun and learning are the primary goals of the enrichment center activities, serious injuries may occur."

_Start _what_? What do you mean by 'serious injuries may occur'? Someone get me up to speed!_

"The portal will open in three...two...one..."

All of a sudden, a blue-rimmed circle opens up in front of me. It leads to the outside of the room I'm trapped in. How is that even possible?

_Oh, God. I'm gonna...ah...ah..._ "ACHOO!"

I turn my head to the side as I sneeze several more times. Then, I open my eyes and see...myself? How is that possible? There's another circle on the other side of the room, and I can see myself through it. The only noticeable difference between this circle and that one is that it's rimmed in orange—not blue.

_Should I...?_

Daringly, I stick my hand through the colored hole in the wall. I look at my reflection, and I see it do the same thing.

_I wonder..._

I walk through the hole. _Holy crap. It _is _a portal!_

There's a closed gate in front of me. It's colored silver, and it has a simplistic design of a stick figure man exiting a portal. All of the color has been made murky as the result of years of wear and tear. Suddenly, the gate unlocks itself and parts like the Red Sea. There is a sparkling sea of blue behind it. "The incandescent particle field in front of you is an Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill. It will destroy any foreign objects that may get smuggled from one testing chamber to another. Please note the following side effects..." Then, a bunch of gibberish is said to me in a manner too speedy for my ears to comprehend.

I stare at the Emancipation Grill for a few moments.

"Please enter the chamber lock," instructs a new voice. This voice is more feminine, and it sounds extremely auto-tuned.

Assuming that the gate that just opened is the chamber lock, I enter the room that's been revealed to me, and the chamber lock closes behind me. An elevator is illuminated by a faltering light. The thing is hardly an elevator, though; it's just a clear tube with a door that slides open for me to enter it. With curiosity, I accept the elevator's invitation. The door slides closed, and the tube shoots up a floor.

**-x-**

"Please place the weighted storage cube on the Fifteen Hundred Megawatt Aperture Science Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Button."

I listen to the robotic female voice's instructions. I go to one end of the white-colored room and pick up the giant cube that's lying there. _God, this thing is heavy_. Then, I quickly scurry over to the button and drop the box onto it. Another chamber lock opens, and I walk through it.

**-x-**

"My, you are progressing quickly through these puzzles. Why don't you try this on for size?"

It's three puzzles in, and the voice claims that I'm moving quickly? These things are cake! Must be a defective recording or something.

The room is pretty empty—no platforms; no cubes; and no anything, really. Then, all of a sudden, a podium rises out of the heart of the room. On top of this podium is a white, gun-like thing.

"Please collect the dual portal device—or "portal gun"—from the podium."

Hesitantly, I do just that.

"Good. Now, the fun begins."

All of a sudden, the room transforms. The podium sinks back into the floor. Makeshift platforms rise in several areas of the room. The floor below me caves in, and I land on my butt. Hard.

"What was that for?" I shouted at the voice who has been talking to me this whole time.

She answers, "Oh, good. You're not another one of those mutes. Things are looking fabulous already."

"Answer me!"

The voice cackles. "Use the portal gun and figure it out."

"Fine! I will!"

_Okay, so maybe this _isn't _cake._

I look at the white portal gun. _How the hell do I use this thing? Let's see..._

_...If I press this button, then press this trigger..._

I accidentally shoot a blue portal in front of me. After fiddling with the device some more, I manage to shoot an orange portal onto the ceiling. I step through the blue portal, and...

"OW!" I cry as my butt once again makes a painful impact with the floor. _Hmph. Let's try that one again...__  
_

I shoot a blue portal in front of me and shoot an orange one at a wall adjacent to a solid platform that's protruding from the floor of the chamber. _G__od, I hope this works_...

I enter the portal and end up atop the platform. _Good. It worked...but where do I go now?_

Above me is a thin platform; across from me is a slanted platform. _I wonder..._

I shoot an orange portal at the floor and a blue one at the slanted platform, then jump into the orange portal. My body is flung out of the blue portal and thrown across the room. I make it to the thin platform that's suspending in the air, but i hit the wall as I do so. My body aches.

"Well done. Please enter the chamber lock for your next task."

**-x-**

_I wonder what she's got in store for me this time,_ I think as I wander down a hallway. It should lead me to my next task, but why haven't I gotten anywhere?

Wait, what's the point of this testing anyhow? Am I a beta tester for this portal gun thing? Am I just a lab rat?

I notice a small crevice in the wall that's to the right of me. I peek through it and see a hidden annex. The graffiti on one of its crumbling walls is illuminated by a weak, flickering spotlight that's dangling from the ceiling. _Can I fit through this thing?_

Daringly, I deviate from the path the voice has sent me down and squeeze myself through the crevice. I get a better look at the graffiti scrawled on the wall. _Don't even try_, it warns me in red crayon. Underneath it, there's another phrase repeated several times: _Her name is poison. _There are also drawings of weighted cubes that have hearts in the the center of them. Overall, the graffiti looks like something that was drawn by a madman.

Still, it's fascinating.

"Hey, where did you go?" asks the voice that has been testing me all this time. "Come back. If you don't come back soon, I _will_ find you, and death will be a breath away."

"You better listen to her, mate."

I jump. "Who was that?" I ask.

My answer came in the form of a blue light that emanated from a once-darkened corner of the room.


	2. Meeting Myself

I'm sitting underneath the light in the annex. Sitting in my lap is a silver sphere robot...thing with a blue light in its center. The poor guy is in massive disrepair, as his outer shell is corroding and his light bulb is slightly cracked down the center. He's looking up at me, and I'm staring rather confusedly at him.

"Hello!" he greets me.

"Hello?"

"Hooray! You talk!"

"...Why is that such a big deal? You're not the first one to point that out to me."

"Oh, it's because—uh, never mind. I'm Wheatley. Good day!"

That name rings a bell. _Where have I heard that name before?_

"Are you bipolar or something? You just kinda went from being all 'you should totally go before that robot voice kills you' to 'hi there, friend'!"

"The tests! I almost forgot!" _Not very bright, are we? _"You need to go."

"But what about you? You just gonna stay in here? You look...well, quite honestly...like shit."

"It's a long story, but I'd rather not be here in the first place. Just—just go on without me. I'd rather stay here where it's safe."

Her voice chimes again. She's furious now. "Come back now, or else you might not live to even _see_ the next chamber!"

I must act fact. Regardless of Wheatley's protesting, I'm taking him with me. (Good thing he comes with a convenient carrying handle.) "What?" he inquires. "What on Earth are you doing?"

"Hey," I reason, "you distracted me for enough time to make that she-beast pissed. You're coming with me, whether you like it or not."

"Oh, no, I'm not!"

"What are you gonna do? Roll away?"

He shuts up, and I escape from the annex.

"Oh, good, you're back...and—never mind. I see you found one of the few places I forgot to fix after..._she_ trashed this place the last time. I'll work on patching that up while you complete this next chamber."

The chamber lock opens, and I'm greeted to another arena to hone my portal gun skills in. The room's a long rectangle. Far to my right is a ledge that's extremely high up. There's a door up there. The wall to my left, which is only a few feet from where I am, is completely white—perfect for shooting portals at. There are a few patches on the wall in front of me with white wall, but, for the most part, the walls are black. I get a better look at the wall I can't see, and I notice this peculiar, electric-blue bridge emanating from a wall tile. I decide to approach the foreign object to get a better look at it. I crouch down and prepare my right index finger to touch the bridge, but Wheatley objects. "STOP!" he warns. "You could get burned! That thing's pure sunlight."

I look up at the ceiling as I hope for some sort of glass window to warm my skin under, but all I see are metal scaffolds suspended in the air. Not a drop of natural light exists here. "Where does she get the sun from, anyways?"

"Not important. Just—just keep testing, and I'll try to figure out how to get us out of here."

_Good luck with that, Wheatley_.

_Let's see. That light bridge ends on one of the white squares on the opposing wall. If I shoot a blue portal there, then shoot an orange portal there..._

I perform my experiment, then hop on the bridge to test my hypothesis. I walk down it, then into one portal and out the other. I'm still walking on the same bridge, except now I'm suspended above the floor that my feet were perched upon just seconds ago. I make it to the chamber lock, and I proceed to the elevator.

I look down at Wheatley. He's in decent shape—well, more like he's still in one piece—even though we passed through an Emancipation Grill. He _is_ foreign material, and I'm smuggling him out of the testing chamber, so how did he survive?

**-x-**

"Hey, look, office space!" points out Wheatley.

"Your point?"

"Maybe there's a computer that I can hack!"

_Why does the mere thought of that scare me?_

I set Wheatley down on a stack of papers that's located on the desk next to me. I scan up and down the aisle in search of a computer, a PDA, a laptop—something that I can bring to Wheatley for him to hack (though I don't know how he'd pull that off, seeing that he has no arms and all). All I see are empty clip boards, half-bitten pens, and overflowing trash bins. Not even a calculator. Did these people seriously not have any computers on their person?

"Hey, you, check out this!"

"What is it now, Wheatley? I'm trying to find a—"

"No, this is better. Come quick!"

I join him over at his pile of paper. The position of his optical has been reversed to the opposite end of his body so he can read a file. He asks me, "What's your name?"

"That's the problem—I don't remember."

"Well, check this out. It says here on this testing subject profile that your name is Concordia, and—oh, your last name got blotted out with coffee. Blasted office workers and their addiction to coffee."

_Concordia? Yes. That does ring a bell, but—_ "How do you know that's definitely my name?"

"Your photo's right here. You probably were put into suspension right after this photo was taken; you haven't changed a bit!"

"Wait, suspension? You mean—"

"Yes. Test subjects tend to have a bit of _minor_ cognitive deterioration after several months in suspension, but the fact that you couldn't even remember your own name could indicate that you might have a very, very, veeeery minor case of _serious_ brain damage—but you're not the first subject to have this happen to her."

I'm flabbergasted. "Uh, _minor_ serious brain damage? Is that even possible?"

"I just wanted to make light of the situation."

"Just—just give me this."

I rip the file out from under Wheatley's metal body, and he falls on his optic. "OW! As if my optic didn't have enough bloody damage as it is."

I scan the document carefully, focusing on every single detail until I'm convinced that this really is myself. The photo...is that what I really look like? I don't even remember what I look like! Maybe Wheatley's right about the brain damage thing...

I find a shard of broken glass near the door, so I gently pick it up and examine my face. Heart-shaped, pale face. Jade green eyes. Hair that's not quite ginger, yet not quite brown. As I take another glance at the photo in my profile, I realize that this file is most definitely mine.

_Concordia._

_It's nice to see myself again._


	3. Intelligence Dampening

Most of this damn file has coffee spilled on it, but some of the information on it is fairly legible. I managed to salvage several more facts about myself. I was 27 at the time I was put into stasis. I tested in the 88th percentile for critical thinking. I was—well, still am—an employee at Aperture, but I can't seem to read what my exact position was. Those were all the facts I could possibly get from this.

To once again confirm that all of this is real, I look at my photo, then back at my reflection. I must've done this ten times in the past five minutes.

Everything's just a jumble in my mind. _Have I really lost my memories? Am I being set up?_

I'm still reluctant to believe any of this, but, if this is most definitely reality, at least I know my name.

Concordia.

What a beautiful name.

_**-x-**  
_

"This next test involves aerial faith plates. Stepping on one shall send you flying across the chamber. Be careful not to hit your head while airborne or crash landing."

"Oh, yeah," I mutter sarcastically, "I feel safe."

Wheatley's optic is changing focus between different corners of the room at an alarming rate. He's looking for something, but _what_ is it?

"Hold on," he tells me before I decide to tackle the course, "I might be able to hack the door open if..."

I stop listening to Wheatley's blabbering for a moment to actually look at my surroundings. I already know that there's one of those faith plate things in here. (Is it the flat, silver floor decoration in front of me, or is that actually a floor decoration?) Lots of high platforms. A few buttons. A cube or two. Some blue...paint? For Christ's sake, Wheatley better know how to hack that door open. How the hell does that robot chick expect me to do THIS?

"...Ah-ha! Look over there!"

Over...where? That little metal cradle that's built into that part of the wall there? Hold on. Let me get a better look at this thing.

It looks like Wheatley could fit into this thing; I mean, the whole thing looks like it was designed for the little, metal sphere.

"That's it!" he confirms. "Just plug me into the stick on the wall here, and I'll try to hack the door open." I nod in understanding, but Wheatley does nothing. "I can't do it if yer looking," he explains, and I turn my back towards him.

"Alright. So...lemme try this code. No. Hm. Maybe this algorithm will...no, that isn't doing anything either. Maybe if I just view the contents of this folder..."

We're doomed.

**-x-**

"Are you _done_ yet, Wheatley?"

"Concordia, this stuff takes time!"

"It's had to be at least an hour already!"

Wheatley sighs. "Okay. Maybe I don't have this."

The robotic woman's voice returns, pointing out, "Of course he doesn't have this. He couldn't even hack into a calculator even if he tried!"

Wheatley doesn't agree to her logic. "Are you calling me a moron?"

"Well, that _was_ your original purpose. You were designed to be a moron."

The voice and Wheatley continue to bicker incessantly. I could've been through with this chamber ages ago if it weren't for all this nonsense. Wait a minute, why _can't_ I solve this chamber. It only looks impossible, but that computer wouldn't deliberately make it that way. I mean, that paperwork said that I scored in the 88th percentile for critical thinking, so obviously I was chosen for testing for a reason.

I aim my portal gun at a wall and begin the task.

**-x-**

"You've probably never even read _The Prince_!"

"I did, and I got every word of it."

"You understood the point that Machiavelli was trying to get across?"

"Yeah! It was something about a prince, right?"

"He was discussing a controversial philosophy on politics, you moron!"

"Hey, you two!" I butt in.

They continue to argue.

"HEY! YOU TWO! UP HERE!"

The disagreement continues.

"WOULD YOU TWO JUST SHUT UP FOR ONE SECOND?"

Wheatley looks up and notices me outside of the emancipation grill leading to the elevator. "Wait!" he yells to me. "Don't just leave me here!"

"Just leave him there," the voice instructs. "He and I need to have a little talk."

Quite honestly, I don't know what's worse: leaving Wheatley there to argue with the woman, or taking Wheatley with me and risk listening to their arguments the whole time.

Wheatley pops off of his dock and rolls onto a white patch of floor. I look up and notice that the blue portal I created earlier hasn't yet fizzled. I shoot an orange portal at Wheatley, and he falls into my hands. "You're welcome," I say to him.

Together, we escape through the emancipation grill and continue on to our next task.

**-x-**

"What were you two fighting about?" I ask Wheatley as the elevator slowly descends to the next testing chamber.

He sighs and explains, "It's nothing, really. GLaDOS and I just don't see eye-to-eye is all. It's a long story. Rather not bring it up."

_GLaDOS_._ So _that's_ her name._

"Just do me a favor—don't listen to her nonsense. Alright?"

"Whatever."

The elevator is still moving downwards. We've been descending for a really long time now. Shouldn't we have been at the next chamber already?

The elevator stops, the doors slide open, and I walk outside. There's a seemingly-endless hallway in front of me. GLaDOS' voice returns, except this time she has a more sinister and irritated tone this time around. "Thanks to your friend here, things are gonna be a lot harder this time around—of course, unless you want to dispose of your little Intelligence Dampening Sphere right here, right now.

A chute emerges from a panel further ahead into the wall to the right of me. The disposal hole is the exact same size as Wheatley. She really _does_ hate this little one, doesn't he? Still...what does she mean by "Intelligence Dampening Sphere"? Is that another one of her insults?

Regardless, I don't want to dump Wheatley. I feel bad for the guy. "Hit me with your best shot, GLaDOS. I'm not giving in just yet."

"Alright. It's your funeral."

The chute disappears into the wall again, and GLaDOS unlocks the gateway in front of me. As I brace myself to enter the next chamber, Wheatley says to me, "I _knew_ that people with brain damage could be heroes! I just knew it! Thank you so much for not disposing of me, love."

"It's nothing," I tell him in response.

On the other hand, this next testing chamber is surely something.


	4. Up, Up, and Far Away

I am currently on my hands and knees, limping (well, more like crawling) my way through the Emancipation Grill while lugging both my portal gun and Wheatley. There are bloodstains on my orange Aperture Science jumpsuit; these marks of war were left by a group of angry turrets that seemed to fall out of the sky at the worst possible moment and in the worst possible place. There are bruises from all of the times that cubes hit me as they, too, fell from the sky. I am weak from all of the strenuous activity of this test. However, I still managed to survive all of this shit.

"Unbelievable," GLaDOS comments. "You actually survived that test!"

_Believe me—I also can't quite understand how that worked out._

"Can I take a rest?" I beg.

"How are you tired? Isn't the adrenal vapor—oh, wait. That all got knocked into the atmosphere after _someone_ forced _her_ shoot a portal AT THE MOON so we could save the facility from being destroyed. Wheatley, does that sound familiar to you? It's awfully familiar to—"

"OKAY, I GET IT!" he shouts. "Can we drop it already?"

"No. I can't forgive you for what you did to me. If it weren't for the whole space incident, I would've taken my time with trying to kill you. I was able to enjoy a pleasant year without you being here and being a moron—"

"I AM _NOT_ A MORON!"

"—but, now that you're back, I _will_ destroy you. If that means that I have to kill off my last human test subject in the process, then fine. I will."

I interrupt, "Does this mean that I can take a rest now?"

"Not unless you throw that little idiot into a bottomless pit or something. Find some way to punish him—hell, stuff him into a potato battery if you want—but you will not rest until you do so." She opens the elevator for me, and I limp inside of it. "Don't you even ponder the idea of napping in this elevator. I could just as easily send you shooting down to the bowels of Aperture."

**-x-**

I want to close my eyes—just for a moment—but every time I try to, GLaDOS' harsh warning rings in my head louder than a booming voice from a loudspeaker. I try to get Wheatley to explain the whole moon thing, but he refuses to talk. I need something to keep me awake.

_Maybe I should try thinking about something. I must keep myself alert until GLaDOS gives up on trying to kill Wheatley._

"Last human test subject?" mutters Wheatley. "Where did she even find her anyhow? I thought she killed off all of the bloody humans years ago..."

"I can hear you, Wheatley."

He looks up at me. "Oh, hello! Sort of...forgotten you're there."

I roll my eyes, then take a deep, exhausted breath.

I take a moment and reflect on what GLaDOS had said earlier. What she said about potato batteries...

...why does that give me a sinking feeling that I cannot evade? The concept sounds so familiar, but, for some reason, I can only associate it with negative thoughts.

**-x-**

"This next test involves fire. Lots of it. Good luck."

As Wheatley and I are working together to survive this next test, Wheatley points out a cranny created between two defective panels. The passage is blocked off by flames that sporadically flicker on and off. I time my maneuvers carefully, yet still end up singeing the edges of my hair as I make my way to the cranny. I manage to just barely squeeze Wheatley and I through the hole.

It's dark in here. Very dark.

"Here, lemme turn on my flashlight."

The beam of light that's emanating from the sphere's optic is extremely bright—okay, maybe a little _too_ bright, but at least I can see the inside of this hidden annex. There are more hidden paintings in here. They depict scenes of chaos—scenes of death. In one scene, a gigantic robot, who is suspended from the ceiling, is staring at a bunch of scientists who are being choked to death by some ominous green gas.

Ominous green gas. "Neurotoxin," I think out loud.

Wait, how do I know that? Did I have a bad experience with the stuff or something? What the hell is going on here?

"That stuff is the devil's brew, I say. It kills every living thing in its path—and in a matter of minutes, too. I remember trying to shut off GLaDOS' neurotoxin emitters with _her_ once. Those were the good days. Then, things happened, and..." A brief pause. "...here we are."

I turn to my left and see another humongous panel. It has a painting of a girl on it. She's wearing an orange jumpsuit similar to mine. Her skin is a gentle tan, and her hair is a dark brown and tied back into a ponytail. Her arms are open; her eyes are closed. "I wonder who this is," I ask myself aloud.

Wheatley's optic widens excitedly. "It's _her,_" he says in awe.

"Who?"

"_Her_. I never knew her name, but she's the one who tried to help us both escape. She experienced me in my darkest hour, and she handled the situation with justice and determination. Out of all the humans I've met, she's the only one I've truly been able to tolerate."

"Ahem?"

"...as well as you."

GLaDOS interrupts, "You tried to kill her. You tried to kill both of us. Who are you kidding? Just get back out here before I make you get back out here."

Fearing death, the two of us comply.

**-x-**

"Very good. If you weren't fraternizing with the enemy, I would put a positive mark on your record for the quality of your testing. However, that (sadly) isn't the case. Therefore, you get a negative mark on your record. You _don't_ want to know what happens when you get too many negative marks."

I gulp nervously.

"Also, you'll be pleased to know that I managed to locate some more adrenal vapor. Now, you have no excuse to be tired. Science can continue as scheduled."

"Isn't that bloody fantastic?" Wheatley complains with a hushed mutter.

"Don't push it, Metal Ball."

**-x-**

"Hm. Let's see. If I want to open that door, I need to put this cube on...that button? No. _That_ button. Or is it the other button? Maybe there are more cubes around here somewhere..."

Wheatley's sitting on the ground beside me as I hold a cube in my arms. I'm still trying to decide where this thing should be placed. "Should I shoot a portal there and press that button? No, that won't work. OH! What about—no, that idea's crap. Hm."

"Uh, Concordia?"

"Not now, Wheatley," I say to him as my eyes still remain locked on the puzzle before me.

"Concordia."

"I said, 'Not now, Wheatley.'"

"CONCORDIA!"

"What the hell is it?" I turn around and notice that Wheatley's being pulled into the ceiling by a crane arm. GLaDOS must finally be taking matters into her own hands. "Stop it!" I shout at the sky. "Leave him alone!"

"You still don't get why I want to kill him, now do you?"

"No, but—"

"That's the point, Concordia. Good luck trying to save him. You'll need it."

"Hurry! Try to grab me from this thing!"

I jump, but it's no use. I don't see any aerial faith plates, nor do I see any way to use portals to save him.

"Grab me! Grab me! Grab me!"

Before I know it, Wheatley vanishes into the ceiling.


	5. Nightmares of a Guilty Conscience

_"Grab me! Grab me! Grab me!"_

Wheatley's voice still echoes through my mind. My conscience won't leave me alone. The feeling of knowing that I let Wheatley down is driving me mad. I let him get scooped up by...by..._her_. GLaDOS. That—that.

"You should cheer up. I just rid you of having the burden of caring for a bumbling idiot."

I stare up at the ceiling of this next chamber. I'm huddled into a fetal position as I continually feel despair for what I had failed to do. "At least that bumbling idiot didn't _lock me in these damn chambers and treat me like a lab rat_."

"Well, if I didn't do that, then how would the science get done?"

Friendship isn't propelled forward by an algorithm or a hypothesis; friendship's only propelled forward by respect and affection. Wheatley may have done a terrible job at it, but at least he tried to help me get through this fun house. He approached me with warmness—with kindness—when we first encountered each other. "Screw your damn science," I bark at GLaDOS.

"Well, science or no science, if you don't finish this test, I _will_ have to kill you, and I _will_ have to find a way to stuff your essence inside of a robot and send that robot to android hell. If I managed to delete the human inside of me, then I _can_ delete you."

I don't like the sound of death, so I get up and continue my testing. As I do so, my guilty conscience plagues my mind.

**-x-**

"Since you've done such a phenomenal job with these last few chambers—"

"—you're going to give me a break?"

"No. Even better. I'm going to justify my hatred for Wheatley."

Joy.

"Have you figured out _why_ I hate him?"

I shake my head to tell her, "No."

"It's much like the myth of Prometheus. Have you heard that one before?"

"No, and I probably wouldn't remember it if I have. Brain damage, remember?"

"Don't be snarky, Concordia. In the myth, Prometheus stole fire from the Greek gods and gave it to the humans. As punishment, the gods cast Prometheus into the bowels of the Earth, where, for a lifetime, he was forced to spend with birds pecking at his internal organs for all eternity. (Now, _these_ people knew how to punish someone!) Chell—the _her_ Wheatley and I have been referencing—and I were like Prometheus. I gave Chell the Aperture Science Handheld Dual Portal Device. Chell gave Wheatley my body. Wheatley stuffed me into a potato battery, and Chell and I were sent to the bowels of Aperture Science. I was pecked by birds, and she was forced to find a way to get the both of us back upstairs. When we got up there, Wheatley tried to kill us—several times, in fact. We were both Prometheuses. Wheatley was a god when he took over my body for that short, horrific period of time. Do you understand my point?"

I nod yes, but I'm a little confused and a tiny bit baffled. The potato batteries. Why are they so significant? Was it because...?

Wait a minute, I'm starting to remember it. The potato battery experiments. Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. Neurotoxin.

GLaDOS killed all of those people with neurotoxin that day. I can still remember the putrid stench of that gas—the exact color green of the element as well. My memory of the event is still faint, but that odor is something I'll never forget.

How did I survive, though? Was I supposed to survive?

"Alright," GLaDOS announces. "Back to testing."

I need to get out of here.

I must get answers.

**-x-**

"This test monitors how a test subject reacts to moving platforms over a sea of goo that will kill you instantly if you submerge yourself even partially into it. Good luck."

It's just me and a bunch of platforms that are hovering over an ocean of disgusting brown glop. What _is_ this stuff, anyway? Forget it; I don't even wanna know.

How the heck do I even get from one platform to another? I can't jump from one to another; I mean, look at the distance between them! There must be at least twenty feet—maybe even more—between each platform. The one I'm standing on is near a line of panels, but none of the panels are white. Ergo, I can't create a portal on any of these damn surfaces. Come to think of it, these ceilings don't have any white panels either. There's not a single place to shoot a portal in this room!

"You trapped me!" I scold GLaDOS.

She lets out a sinister, auto-tuned guffaw. The platforms begin to drop into the goop, and I know there is no escape. Before I know it, I'm drowning, dying, and dead.

**-x-**

My eyes dart open. My head is throbbing with pain, and my breathing is heavy. I'm laying on the bottom of an elevator. How did I get in here? I don't even remotely remember entering an elevator. I just remember death.

...Death? Did that even happen? Is this all real, or...?

"It turns out that the adrenal vapor reserves were switched out and replaced by some sort of weak anesthesia. I'm gonna have to find the infernal contraption that pulled that prank and, well, kill them.

"On the other hand, you were able to nap without me threatening to kill you for doing so. My testing methods may be slightly unorthodox (at least, that's what humans have told me), but I _do_ have a level of understanding when it comes to certain circumstances such as this one. You passed out at the end of the last chamber, so I sent my faithful robot test subjects, Atlas and P-Body, to rescue you and carry you into the elevator. You're welcome."

I've been breathing anesthetic-laced air this whole time? No wonder why I've been getting so increasingly tired. I wish I could say that I slept well, but, after that nightmare, I feel like I've hardly slept at all. My body is still sore with fatigue, and my eyes are drooping a little. I guess I deserved it after I failed to realize that Wheatley was being abducted.

"Get up. Now. Your break is over. Back to testing."


End file.
